The Crusade Against Diphtheria
Drs. Lomry and Duble communicated recently to the Office international d'hygiène publique the results of their researches on the crusade against diphtheria, since 1913, in the province of Luxemburg, before and after the introduction of vaccination. They examined twenty-four schools located in eighteen different areas and comprising 4,223 children. They have reached the conclusion that the search for diphtheria carriers, with measures to render them noninfective, which, before the introduction of vaccination, was the principal prophylactic measure against diphtheria, and which, during the employment of the toxin-antitoxin vaccine, was continued in full force, has become secondary and accessory, if not useless, since the discovery of anatoxin.The search for carriers will not be abandoned until vaccination has become more general, but it will be confined chiefly to known contacts in the family and in the school, and measures for eliminating this danger will be applied only